"The Needle and the Damage Done" is a song by Neil Young that chronicles the descent into heroin addiction of musicians he knew. It was written about the heroin use of his Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten (before Whitten died of an overdose), and previews the theme of "Tonight's the Night", a song that addresses the heroin overdose and death of Bruce Berry, a roadie for Young and his band Crazy Horse.

"The Needle and the Damage Done" first appeared on the Harvest album in 1972. The song was recorded live rather than in the studio. It appears on the compilation albums Decade and Greatest Hits. On the handwritten liner notes included in Decade, Young had this to say about the song: "I am not a preacher, but drugs killed a lot of great men."

A recording of the song from 1971 was part of the 2007 album Live at Massey Hall 1971. The album captured Young's introduction of his song thus:

Ever since I left Canada, about five years ago or so... and moved down south... found out a lot of things that I didn't know when I left. Some of 'em are good, and some of 'em are bad. Got to see a lot of great musicians before they happened... before they became famous... y'know, when they were just gigging. Five and six sets a night... things like that. And I got to see a lot of, um, great musicians who nobody ever got to see. For one reason or another. But... strangely enough, the real good ones... that you never got to see was... 'cause of, ahhm, heroin. An' that started happening over an' over. Then it happened to someone that everyone knew about. So I just wrote a little song.

Bands that covered this song on studio albums include Our Lady Peace, Green River, Duran Duran, Lior, Simple Minds, and The Pretenders; the Pretenders lost members to drug-related deaths. Punk rock band The Bronx recorded a cover which can be found as a b-side on the "False Alarm" single.

Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante has covered it while on tour in Japan. Alternative metal band Seether covered it during a performance on Last Call with Carson Daly. Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea has covered it while on tour in 1993 for the temporary departure of John Frusciante from their band. Cross Canadian Ragweed's Cody Canada performed the song acoustically on their 2006 release Back to Tulsa - Live and Loud at Cain's Ballroom.

English folk singer Laura Marling covered it twice on her August 2008 tour of Australia.

• The song was the inspiration for The Sisters of Mercy's first 7" single, "The Damage Done" (1980).
• The title was also used as the album title for the second installment of the Nirvana: Outcesticide bootleg series (1995).
• In the ninth episode of the second season of News Radio Jimmy remarks to Dave the he's "...seen the coffee and the damage done." A reference to Dave's coffee addiction.
• Rolling Stone's cover story on Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley, a known heroin addict, bears the title (Issue 727).
• A reference to its title can be found in the song "Understanding in a Car Crash" on the album Full Collapse (2001) by Thursday.
• A fourth season episode of Homicide: Life on the Street concerning the fallout from a drug war was titled "The Damage Done".
• "Song to Say Goodbye" from the Placebo album Meds (2006) includes the lyrical reference "your needle and your damage done".
• In 1994, several prison guards in Idaho were accused of playing this song to taunt death row inmates during a scheduled lethal injection.^[1]
• A reference to the title appears in the song "Genetic Design For Dying" from Aiden's album Nightmare Anatomy (2005)
• In 1997, the Skylab remix of the Depeche Mode song "Home" was titled "Home (The Noodles & The Damage Done)".